Oaxaca

OAXACA, Mexico -- Protesters set fire to another building in the colonial city of Oaxaca on Sunday after torching government offices and vehicles and damaging hotels during demonstrations that left at least 43 injured and 152 arrested. On Saturday, leftist protesters demanding the resignation of the Oaxaca state governor hurled rocks, powerful fireworks and gasoline bombs at federal police, in a bid to encircle the officers in the city.

OAXACA, Mexico -- Leftist activists blockaded government offices across the southern state of Oaxaca on Tuesday to pressure federal senators to remove the state governor. The protests came as lawmakers in Mexico City met to consider sending a bill to the Senate that could remove Gov. Ulises Ruiz on grounds that he has lost control of his state. More than 2,000 protesters from the Oaxaca People's Assembly have blocked Oaxaca's state capital for months. The police have effectively been run out of town.

The cultural traditions of Old Mexico highlight a Christmas sojourn in Oaxaca. Slated for Dec. 20-27, "Authentic Mexico: Food & Festivals" features Noche Buena, or "Holy Night," processions with fireworks and floats, as well as traditional cooking classes that reveal secret recipes and techniques. Accommodations are at a colonial mansion near Oaxaca's main square. The $2,998 price covers lodging, most meals, activities and local transportation, with international airfare additional. Another holiday package focuses on Mexico's "last frontier."

MEXICO CITY -- Senators from Mexico's three main parties announced a fact-finding mission to the embattled city of Oaxaca on Wednesday that could lead to the removal of the state governor. Protesters have been camped out in Oaxaca since May, demanding the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whom they accuse of rigging the 2004 election and using armed gangs against his opponents. The protesters have set up blockades and burned buses.

OAXACA, Mexico -- Shop owners shuttered their businesses and demonstrators built up street barricades Saturday after President Vicente Fox ordered federal police to intervene in this picturesque city torn by more than five months of protests and violence. Fox had refused requests to use force in Oaxaca even as the city slid toward chaos amid the protests to oust the governor. But gunbattles Friday that killed a U.S. journalist and two Mexicans apparently exhausted Fox's patience.

OAXACA, Mexico -- A stream of teachers returned to their classrooms in southern Oaxaca state this week, five months after a strike and brewing political battle to oust the governor had kept more than 1 million children from going to school. Alma Rosa Fernandez, an official of one of the teachers' unions, said about 4,000 of the state's 14,000 schools had reopened. But some masked protesters have been blocking children and their parents as they try to return to the schools.

OAXACA, Mexico -- Federal police pulled out of the central square of the city of Oaxaca on Saturday, ending a seven-week occupation that restored order but angered many residents. The withdrawal is another sign that six months of protests and street violence are ending after killing nine people, scaring away tourists and shattering the historic southern city's economy. The officers' departure leaves state and city police to keep order. The protesters, a broad front of leftists, trade unionists and Indian groups, had taken over the center of Oaxaca for five months until more than 4,000 federal police armed with water cannons and helicopters drove them off in October and November.

OAXACA, Mexico -- A group of federal senators that is weighing a request to remove the Oaxaca state governor arrived on a fact-finding mission in this embattled city Thursday, a day after protesters refused to permit police to take control of the center they have occupied for five months. The senators from Mexico's three main political parties will spend several days to determine whether the necessary conditions exist to remove Gov. Ulises Ruiz from office, namely that the state government has ceased to function effectively.

OAXACA, Mexico -- Thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched through this tense colonial city Sunday, demanding that the security forces abandon camps they set up last week to end a five-month protest. Masked police officers clutching automatic weapons watched the protesters from rooftops as they marched to a plaza about a block away from the encampments, yelling, "Get out, federal police!" The leaders then formed a human chain to keep the crowd of about 20,000 from confronting police, but about 400 people broke through and attacked the officers with stones and bottles.

OAXACA, Mexico -- A passenger bus flipped over in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca early Saturday, killing 11 passengers and injuring 39, including the driver, authorities said. Regional state police commander Lazaro Rendon said the bus, with 50 people on board, was speeding when it veered out of control and rolled over near the town of Ojitlan, 220 miles from the state capital of Oaxaca City. The driver was taken into custody and was being questioned but had not been charged with a crime pending investigation.

OAXACA, Mexico -- Federal police pulled out of the central square of the city of Oaxaca on Saturday, ending a seven-week occupation that restored order but angered many residents. The withdrawal is another sign that six months of protests and street violence are ending after killing nine people, scaring away tourists and shattering the historic southern city's economy. The officers' departure leaves state and city police to keep order. The protesters, a broad front of leftists, trade unionists and Indian groups, had taken over the center of Oaxaca for five months until more than 4,000 federal police armed with water cannons and helicopters drove them off in October and November.

MEXICO CITY -- Assailants shot dead an Indian activist in Mexico's conflict-ridden state of Oaxaca, police said Saturday. It was not clear whether the killing was related to months of political violence in which at least nine others have died. The body of Raul Marcial Perez was found Friday near the Mixtec Indian community of Agua Fria north of the city of Oaxaca, state police said. Marcial Perez had been involved in disputes involving two rival Triqui Indian-rights groups, but it was not clear whether that was related to his slaying.

OAXACA, Mexico -- Protesters set fire to another building in the colonial city of Oaxaca on Sunday after torching government offices and vehicles and damaging hotels during demonstrations that left at least 43 injured and 152 arrested. On Saturday, leftist protesters demanding the resignation of the Oaxaca state governor hurled rocks, powerful fireworks and gasoline bombs at federal police, in a bid to encircle the officers in the city.

OAXACA, Mexico -- About 4,000 leftist protesters demanding the resignation of Oaxaca's state governor tried to encircle federal police guarding the capital city's main square, hurling gasoline bombs and powerful fireworks in a confrontation that left nine injured. Federal police responded with tear gas Saturday and detained at least three dozen protesters, most of them youths from low-income neighborhoods. The group was angered by unconfirmed reports that a spokesman for their movement, the Oaxaca People's Assembly, had been detained.

OAXACA, Mexico -- The governor at the center of the violent conflict in Oaxaca avoided delivering his annual government-status report in person Wednesday after protesters calling for his resignation vowed to interrupt him. Rather than make the traditional speech to the state legislature, Gov. Ulises Ruiz taped a message broadcast later Wednesday on television and radio and had a Cabinet member deliver the printed report.

OAXACA, Mexico -- Four youths wearing bandanas over their faces tossed gasoline bombs at a McDonald's restaurant in the conflict-torn city of Oaxaca before dawn Sunday, police said. Security personnel extinguished the blaze, and there were no injuries.

OAXACA, Mexico -- The federal government would consider using "measured" force only as a last resort to end four months of unrest in the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca, Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal said in comments published Thursday. Abascal's comments came as owners of gas stations, hotels, supermarkets and other businesses in Oaxaca launched a two-day strike to call for federal police to remove leftist protesters who have paralyzed the town since May. The protest movement began with a teachers strike but evolved into a broader movement of leftist sympathizers demanding that Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz resign.

OAXACA, Mexico -- Students filed by masked demonstrators as classes resumed Monday at a public university overrun by protesters, in the latest sign this colonial city is slowly returning to normal after six months of unrest. University spokesman Carlos Pazaran said Monday that the science, veterinary-medicine and architecture schools remained closed, while the dentistry school was only partially running. But the rest of the university's staff had returned, and scores of students walked past barricades of rickety buses on their way to class.

OAXACA, Mexico -- Four youths wearing bandanas over their faces tossed gasoline bombs at a McDonald's restaurant in the conflict-torn city of Oaxaca before dawn Sunday, police said. Security personnel extinguished the blaze, and there were no injuries.